Gov. Jerry Brown’s three-day environmental summit in San Francisco kicked off on Wednesday, bringing together political leaders from around the world.

The event will test whether California can bring the country to a place Congress and the White House won’t. States, cities and companies will try to chart a course to carry the U.S. and the world toward meeting the goals in the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change, which Trump has disavowed.

Jerry Brown closed his climate summit in San Francisco on Friday with a dramatic announcement: California will launch its own satellite into orbit to track and monitor the formation of pollutants that cause climate change.

“With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,” Brown said in prepared remarks. “This groundbreaking initiative will help governments, businesses and landowners pinpoint — and stop — destructive emissions with unprecedented precision, on a scale that’s never been done before.”

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Sep. 14, 2018, 10:57 a.m.

As a leader in opposing President Trump’s policies, California has filed a spate of lawsuits seeking to block the federal government from unraveling climate change policies and other environmental protections.

The state has taken “Donald Trump to court 23 times to defend our planet,” Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Friday at a global climate summit in San Francisco. “We’ve secured so far 14 victories in those lawsuits and we haven’t lost a case yet against Washington, D.C.”

Now, Becerra and other attorneys general want lawyers outside state government to help fight similar battles.

Sep. 14, 2018, 10:45 a.m.

A statue of a polar bear made out of repurposed car hoods erected outside the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

A dozen more cities have signed on to an international pledge to fight climate change and reduce traffic pollution by transitioning to zero-emission buses and getting other fossil fuel-powered vehicles off their streets.

Honolulu, Santa Monica, Seoul, Warsaw and West Hollywood are among the communities pledging to procure only zero-emission buses by 2025 and make “a major area” emissions free by 2030, a coalition of mayors announced Friday at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

The actions are based on preventing the most devastating effects of climate change by keeping the rise of global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius. To do so, scientists say greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020, decline steeply by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by mid-century.

Gov. Jerry Brown embraced a package of proposals from lawmakers Thursday to boost the number of zero-emissions vehicles on California roads, from incentives to buy used cars to new emissions goals for the ride-share industry.

Brown used the deck of a hybrid-electric ferry boat, the first of its kind to cruise San Francisco Bay, as the setting for a brief ceremony as he signed bills that focus on the transportation sector. Several of the legislative authors of the bill joined the governor for a brief cruise on the bay, capping the second day of the Global Climate Action Summit.

Three bills signed by Brown seek to help low-income Californians who might otherwise be shut out of the expensive market for electric vehicles.

Climate scientists warn that global emissions need to peak by 2020 if the planet is to dodge catastrophic warming. At the summit Thursday, 27 cities announced they have already met that goal, and their emissions are on the decline even as their economies are growing.

These “peak emissions” cities are home to some 54 million people. Their emissions have fallen over the last five years, and are dropping at an average of 2% per year even as their populations grow. Los Angeles and San Francisco are among the cities that have peaked.

“While Washington refuses to act, while homes are lost while firefighters are dying… American cities are saying this is real and we will take action,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, vice chair of C40 Cities, a global coalition of cities working to fulfill the Paris climate agreement.

Sep. 13, 2018, 12:39 p.m.

Members of the group 1000 Grandmothers protest in San Francisco, where the Global Climate Action Summit is being held. (Juliet Williams / Associated Press)

While delegates to Thursday’s events at the Global Climate Action Summit praised the leadership of Gov. Jerry Brown, a raucous crowd outside the San Francisco venue had sharp criticism for the state’s chief executive.

Protesters demanded that Brown take a more firm stand against the expansion of oil production in California. One group carried a large yellow banner telling the governor that he has a “last chance” to choose between “fossil fuel or our future.” Many were part of a group that has challenged Brown throughout the year for what they see as having too close of a relationship with the oil industry.

The crowd at one point blocked one of the entrances to the Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco, the site for the summit. A large police presence remained on scene throughout the morning.

Sep. 13, 2018, 10:34 a.m.

Soon after the summit got underway, the prime minister from Barbados, Mia Mottley, put into perspective for attendees what President Trump’s decision to cancel the U.S. commitment to the Green Climate Fund means for her country.

The fund was created as part of a Copenhagen climate agreement that preceded the Paris accord. Its aim is to enable the richest countries to help developing nations reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change.

Trump complained that the U.S. commitment of $3 billion to the fund was onerous, and he ordered the payments stopped.

Awesome to see citizens peacefully demonstrating this morning (songs, signs & chants) @ SF Moscone Center #GCAS2018 in protest for more regulations to protect environment & reduce carbon emissions. We should all be that passionate about climate change. 🌎❤️ pic.twitter.com/knlMv7Psk3

Sep. 13, 2018, 9:51 a.m.

Gov. Jerry Brown after signing SB100, which sets a goal of phasing out all fossil fuels from the state's electricity sector by 2045. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Just before the climate summit got underway, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an executive order that was so far-reaching and unprecedented that it was met with considerable skepticism. The directive calls for the entire California economy to go completely carbon free by 2045.

The ambitious plan raised immediate questions. As an executive order, is it even binding? Does California have any plan in place for a complete decarbonization of its economy?

Brown vowed Thursday morning that the order was not just symbolic. He said such transitions in California have traditionally started with an executive order, which are then followed by agencies putting plans in place and the Legislature cementing the policy with new law. He acknowledged that getting to carbon neutrality requires “technological changes that don’t exist yet” and his measure is aimed at bolstering their innovation.